10 months into retirement and My wife remarked on a fact today. Before I retired- she had plenty of time to do her own thing. Go shopping whenever she liked-Take the dog for a walk- work in the garden- tidy and clean the house- and she had an easy life. Now she has to work round me. Think it is about time I put a radio and easy chair in the bike shed so I can listen to the radio I like instead of her music- Time I got the Campavan back on the road so I don't have to keep using her car- and the biggest sin of all--Shopping now takes twice as long whenever I go with her and the cupboards are full of the wrong sort of food.

Me thinks it is time to get out on the bike more and give the wife more space.

I'm 57 and have been retired for a year now. Retirement is awesome. I do what I want, when I want and sometimes do nothing at all. I had a lot of resposibilities for many years and now have few. My handle says it all

I wise man once said " any fool can work his entire life away"

Don't forget a heater also for the bike shed. You don't want to catch a chill when you're communung with your bikes, Stapfam.

Before I retired I told my wife I would not be grocery shopping with her. I hated it when I was single, hate it today. Besides, she rarely allows me to cook (next week I'm doing chili for my old boss and other deputies). I spend much of my day in my home office on the computer or preparing Bible lessons. This is the time she spends cleaning, etc. Since our TV tastes are different, I watch shows in my office until the evening when we spend time together. And, of course, I now cut a hour or two a day out for bike riding. This gives her time she needs. Otherwise I would probably be dead by now.

Depends on your health,
Depends on what you want to do,
Depends on how much $ you have to do it with... JMO

Retirement can be great, or it can really suck...

Retirement for some of us is especially sweet since we had to work for a boss that was the south end of a horse headed north!!!! If they put a pay toilet on his grave the people that had to work for him could probably pay off the national debt in about 3 years! He broke every tenent of good management that was ever listed. Now I am my own boss and he is the best one I ever had.

This past year I have been in what I like to call semi-retirement. But this winter I have been getting a bit bored so I will be starting a part-time job at Home Depot which is about 10 minutes away. My LBS has asked me to consider PT this Spring and Summer. This sounds like it might be fun and yet allow for lots of riding time.

My third week and it finally hit me. I realized that when I go on vacation, I like it until the last couple of days. At that point, I missed the routine that my work life gave me. I need to find some structure...

I thought I was the only one with that thinking. Remembering back to a session with the plant's HR Manager when I told him they had best put a Job Johnie on my supervisor's grave to handle all of us underlings who would be there to pay our respects at his grave.

Been with the same company for 28 years, had the same boss since 1997. He'll retire in two years and I'm only a few behind him. Love my job, make a good living and in two years, I'll have six weeks of vacation.

Unless the new boss is a complete ******* - and there's always a good chance of that in a fortune 5 company - I may just work for a few more years past 60. The next boss will weigh heavily on the decision and I won't lose sleep on that either way!

Ill pick up the bass guitar again, get back into ham radio, fly remote-controlled airplanes, ride my bike, maybe go back in the lab as a lab tech again, travel (we plan to summer in cheap location o/s of AZ, wife is from Brazil) and maybe teach a little. Anything and everything to stay engaged. Sit around at home? That's like practicing for death.

Retirement = freedom!!!!

47 and retired. What's not to like, you no longer live by the clock or calendar.

I was forced into semi retirement by a work related injury and really bad treatment and am financially secure for the rest of my days and do not have to work and have been forced into a more sedentary lifestyle.

I run my little bicycle shop at home where I am now building racks and soon will be set up to build frames after apprenticing and now partnering with a master frame builder for the last three years. I work as much as I am able to because I enjoy it, and not because I have to... and take rest and time off when I need to.

I volunteer at the Bicycle Co-op when I can, teach some classes, and am a house husband and father who is getting to spend way more time with two growing daughters and this has also allowed me to travel and spend a good amounts of time in the U.S. with my wife who will soon be immigrating to Canada.

My daughters tell me that being injured really sucked and was hard on them to see but on the other hand they say that having their dad there for them so much is absolutely wonderful.

I ride for therapy and the enjoyment it brings and it is one of the physical activities I can still do reasonably well... standing and walking for extended periods is problematic and I do miss running as I was getting back into that.

I got fragged 5 years ago this month... I was 42.

you get to read the obits every morning,when you read the paper,and if you are not there you have at least
another day.......Bud

Sorry to hear about the injury; however, the story is a good one with a happy ending. There are lots of things I enjoy but nothing is more important to me than family.....Well done

My dad retired,,did alot of fishin,,BASS Tournaments and such for several years.
Then he started watching alot of Golf on TV, Football also,, His body went to hell real fast after he sat down..REAL Fast.
He spent the next 10 years watching TV.

I've got to have a purpose, got to get up every day for a reason,,,
I'm gonna work till I drop or volunteer full time.

DONT retire and just sit and watch TV!!!!! You will rust out and die way too soon. It happened to my father.

Fortunately for those of us on this or any bike forum, we ride bikes. Cycling keeps you young. I for instance am in far better shape than my circle of friends that golf. The problem there is they use a golf cart, and set and drink beer afterward.

It's amazing how quickly a body surges in the wrong direction through inactivity. When you see someone in their 60's and 70's obsessively and compulsively exercising everyday, it may be because they know that stopping equals instant decline.

"Man's Search for Meaning" -- by Viktor Frankl speaks to that:

In it, Frankl equates a 'Will to Meaning' to a 'Will to Live'. And, most health care professionals seem to believe that when the 'Will to Live' leaves, death soon follows.

Or, a paraphrase from FrankL:
A person who has a "WHY" to live, can bear with almost any "HOW"

Still working, and yet to see a clear plan. I've had inactivity forced upon me for the last 8 months due to a tendon injury, followed by inadequate wound healing... and I can personally attest to a rapid decline in vitality. Fortunately, I'm slowly gaining mobility and should be able to ride regularly soon. On the negative side, my low back/neck and knee OA keep me from a vigorous training routine, so the climb back is a long one for me. There's not too much danger of me watching too much c**p on the telly, but the internet is like an endless curiosity shop - so the last period of inactivity has caused me to habituate to this - since I was stuck on my back with my leg raised anyway.

At 63, I could continue to work as long as the professor I serve wishes to stay active - and he will not be forced to retire if he has a vital research program. This is somewhat a problem, as I would benefit from more time to myself - so I could incorporate a long ride once a week into my routine, and add a gym membership in the mix so I can do some weight training. But I love my job, I get a reasonable amount of respect, fulfill my tinkering drive, and the paycheck also helps. But it also keeps me from finishing a lot of household projects, taking enough time to keep my strength up, etc.

My wife and I have a reasonable retirement plan, but still have yet to plan an affordable location to retire to. I appreciate that moving away would mean losing our nice neighborhood friends there, but I can't see how we could afford the high cost of living here in CT, as well as the costs of maintaining our home.

Another issue is that my wonderful wife will have to retire soon or else she will loose any of my accumulated SS benefits after I'm gone - she works in the school system and though she's technically not a teacher, she doesn't pay into SS due to the tax law viewing her as a teacher. It's a pretty screwy situation. Since she came to her profession late, she doesn't have enough credit for a full teacher's pension - so she'll either have to stop working in a year or two, before she accumulates too many years to allow her to inherit my ss benefits, or else work for another eight years until she's 67 and qualify for a portion but not the full teacher's pension. We'll probably both be worn out by then!

So for me, there are too many variables for me to formulate a clear plan.

"Retirement, is the best job I ever had!" (Me, 2001)

Cranky, I'm thinking you and your wife would benefit greatly with a visit to a fee-only financial planner. Someone who knows retirement finances well. A couple hundred bucks, but you'll both come out ahead in the long run. Just make sure it is someone who is 'fee only', meaning that they are not going to try and sell you anything.

Second the Financial Planner route! Over 15 years ago we went to one and then decided to have them manage our portfolio. They have done very well for us over the years. Yes, they take a small percentage each year but it has been offset by the returns that have secured for us. Maybe I could get those same returns, but they make adjustments to the portfolio through out the year. It also takes that burden off us to work it out.

Say what?!? My wife is a teacher and she pays SS, and when I was a teacher, not for many years mind you, I still paid SS. How can she not pay into SS? SS is on the federal level, not state. I don't see how a state can make it so a teacher would not have to pay SS.

Mike,
Some groups can opt out of the Social Security system, I am not sure of the process, I'd have to ask Monica as she does retirement benefits compliance and IRS related work for plans. Some Civil Service classifications opted out a few years ago and had their own plan that had to be approved. Not sure how it works, I'll find out and P.M. you if you want.

Bill